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Japanese Gamers' Post-E3 Reversal

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the logical-people dept.

Castar writes "Prior to E3, Famitsu readers were interested in the PS3, and Final Fantasy. Post E3, while there's still some excitement over Final Fantasy, they seem to be very interested in the Wii, and concerned about the PS3's high price. It certainly seems that in Japan, at least, Nintendo and Sony's fortunes have reversed. Will this hold through the launch and the succeeding years?" From the article: "Nearly 70% of readers said they are most looking forward to Wii. 21% voted for PlayStation 3, while the others voted for systems already released. 88.4% of readers believe PlayStation 3 is too expensive, while 10% believe it's 'about right'."

6 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. Sony was foolish... by tonywong · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I'd say retarded, but I guess they just weren't creative enough.

    If they really wanted to capitalize on making a splash, they should have announced that retail prices were going to be marginally higher than the 360, but they could have said that they were going to use eBay for charity auctions on the initial runs, donating half of the money towards a charity of winner's designation, etc. eBay would have paid them big money for this and Sony would have made huge gains in publicity and a feeding frenzy would make the retail price look absolutely cheap in comparison.

    Just my 2 cents.

  2. Ouch by wilgibson · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When 88.4% of the polled market says the price is too high maybe you should listen. This is extremely true in Japan, where while the younger generation still has money to burn, they aren't going out and buying things that cost $600 not while they are paying sometimes almost $1000/month for that one bedroom appartment.

    Hell, when I went in March to see my girlfriend, the only person I ever saw with a PSP was her brother. His friends said they wanted to get one, but that it was too expensive.

  3. RPG Shift by ureshii_akuma · · Score: 3, Interesting
    While it is all speculation, and we will have to wait 'till the sytems are out a while to know if there is a change in the market, I have been wondering if the price of the PS2 combined with the input device of the Wii might mean we see a shift back to Nintendo as the primary Japanese RPG / SRPG platform.

    One of the main reasons I own a PS2 is for Japanese RPGs - plain and simple, it is where most of the developers are. The primary reason? The prolific amount of PS2s in the wild in Japan.

    Fast forward to 2007/2008. IF the price of the PS3 negatively impacts its adoption rate in Japan, and IF the price and novelty of the Wii positively impacts its adoption rate in Japan, suddenly I could see a lot of development houses making the following chocies - ignore the PS3 and continue working on PS2 titles (systems seem to last longer in terms of game releases in Japan than they do in the US), or develop Wii titles. The Wii control scheme would likely work well with menu driven (point-and-click) interfaces.

    Of course, there are some big ifs there, and of course big dev houses like Square-Enix will likely stick with the PS3 for their primary platform, but polls like the one for this article do lead me to believe such a shift is not all together impossible.

  4. console size by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    the japanese consumer is also well known for not liking large consoles - space is limited so their consoles gotta be smaller in nature.

    the ps3 is pretty damn big, like xbox size, be interesting to see when the console is more visible if that'll deter the market even more.

    i don't believe the wii is enough for a lot of gamers out there so they will end up choosing a 360 or a ps3. once ms gets their RPGs out (and there are more than a few lined up - all geared for that japanese market) - you might see the 360 market gain some movement in the far east. especially if the ps3 is a bit pricey, and in japan being viewed as pricey means your product is extremely pricey...

  5. Re:I'm wondering at a market skism by argStyopa · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Dead or Alive Extra Booby Breast Physics

    So...has this been announced yet?

    I'm sorry, did you say something else too?

    --
    -Styopa
  6. Re:Polls and surveys by ClamIAm · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I think that in the video game industry, people try and draw logical conclusions without first really defining their starting point. Just thinking about this for a second, I put forth the assertion that there are two components gamers love: something significantly better than before, and something that is a new idea.

    Now, there's a fine line between "new idea" and "gimmick". I think that Nintendo walks this line every day. When the DS and the Wii controller were both announced, people at first were pretty skeptical. Although we don't know about the Wii yet, the DS has managed to turn out some cool stuff. On the other hand, we have stuff like the GBA-to-Cube link and the U-Force controller. Personally, I think that as long as the Wiimote works well, it will do at least as well as the Gamecube did.